UWB systems involve spreading data over a wide range of frequencies. UWB is typically defined as occupying a bandwidth greater than 500 MHz or 25% of the center frequency. This characteristic of UWB carries the benefit that interference from UWB systems to other systems is expected to be low. However, because UWB systems occupy a wide bandwidth they can be expected to suffer interference from other systems that occupy parts of their frequency space. That is a particular problem when a UWB receiver is located in a device that also has a transmitter for such an other system. In that situation the UWB receiver may receive very strong interference at the frequencies on which the transmitter is transmitting.
Various forms of redundancy are incorporated in most data transmission protocols, so that data that is not received successfully can be recovered. However, it is nevertheless preferable to reduce the impact that interference has on a receiver's ability to decode a received signal.